WINDHOEK – The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Bernard Esau, has confirmed the prevailing drought has had a negative impact on the production of fresh water fish at fish farms.
Speaking during an interview with New Era, Esau elaborated that the fishing season is especially affected due to people not supplying mahangu, which is used as an ingredient in producing fish feed.
The minister hopes the upcoming rainy season will be favourable so as to have access to mahangu to produce fish feed for fish farms in all the regions in which they operate.
“We are also having a kind of a drought in producing fish,” he said.
He went on to say that the fish farm in the Hardap Region outside Mariental is doing relatively well through a private/public partnership (PPP) because the farm buys its fish feed from South Africa, however this fish feed is very expensive.
“They are doing well, they are producing tilapia and are supplying fish to some restaurants in Hardap,” Esau told New Era.
“We are producing in Epalela and Onavivi [in the Omusati Region], it is off season now because of the drought and it is also cold for spawning the fish,” said Esau, explaining that no closed structures exist where one can control the temperature. The ponds are in open air and the spawning activities are seasonal.
Another obstacle challenging fish farms is that there was no proper feasibility study conducted in terms of the location of the fish farms, according to Esau. He elaborated that two fish farms in the Zambezi Region are located in floodplains.
“When it rains, those fish farms are forever flooded,” he said.
Fish farms in the Kavango East Region, namely at Karovo, are also partly flooded and are always flooded when the water level of rivers rise during the rainy season.
“We have returned the Uapangandu fish farm because of its location,” said the minister about the fish farm that is located just outside Rundu, as part of the ministry’s turnaround strategy.
He further explained that the council has to decide on what to do with the land on which the Uapangandu fish farm used to operate.
“The fish farm at Mpungu is doing well in Kavango West,” he said.
As part of the ministry’s turnaround strategy to revive the fish farms, he explained that the fish farms that are located in floodplains will be given back to their councils.
“We also have a fish farm at Kalimbeza which is in a floodplain and that one is also to be returned,” he revealed.
Furthermore, the minister said that his ministry is looking into turning around the fish farm at Karova although it is partially flooded. Esau confirmed that the ministry invested a lot of funds into the Mpungu fish farm as well as the fish farm at Epalela where new facilities were put up.
“We have lined the ponds with plastic and we have our experts based there at that farm,” he stated.
“We have also invested in the fisheries centre in Ongwediva, I opened that facility last year and we are also doing our trials, tests and research there jointly with Vietnamese experts. What we are trying to do is to ensure our aquaculture is sustainable,” he said.
By Lorraine Kazondovi